What plagued even my generation with technology access, was that there was no guiding hand that took you right to the wizard behind the curtain to see how it all worked. Everyone you knew interacted with the computer from the most abstract way. And in turn, that's exactly the sort of pattern you picked up as well, using a GUI surfing the web, because that's all anyone could at best teach you to do. Today, that is still the case, but the abstraction has moved a notch further. Kids might not even have computers in the home anymore at all. They only learn to interact with technology through how they see their parents and peers use it: using a phone in a walled garden full of skinner boxes and other dystopian patterns.
If more kids got more of a chance to be exposed to how the sausage is actually made, and learn how to actually take a computer they own and program with it in the same way every other developer programs with a computer (not some contrived learning language but exposure to the real tools), they'd probably be a lot less susceptible into falling into these patterns as they see them for what they are: energy draining time sinks. Empower them to think of the phone or computer as it actually should be: a tool that could run whatever you can imagine and write up on it, rather than basically a TV screen full of commercials in your pocket.
We are happy subscribers to Pinwheel (https://www.pinwheel.com), which is a smartphone without browser or social media access.
Our kids can still phone and text their friends, take photos and videos, listen to music, etc. There are hundreds of supported apps, and we can always whitelist apps from the Google Play Store as needed.
But they're not on Insta/Snapchat/TikTok, they can't browse the Web, and we have reasonable oversight via parental controls.
Likewise, our 7th and 9th graders have laptops, but they don't have unfettered access to the Web.
Our hope is that by giving them sloooow exposure to the digital realm, with a lot of guard rails, they'll be less likely to get smacked in the face with something really awful that they're not equipped to handle.
I see this as a moderate position, between a total ban on technology, and practically no restrictions at all, which seems like a recipe for disaster for the majority of tweens and teens.
That said, I recognize that compared with many of their peers, it's pretty strict. That's probably the hardest part of navigating the technology landscape -- having to deal with the comparisons between what we think is sensible and what other parents allow for their kids.
As an EE I’ve shown my kids how the sausage is made. While they will start out their free time with a screen, they have adopted a habit of budgeting time for other things.
[+] [-] asdff|1 year ago|reply
If more kids got more of a chance to be exposed to how the sausage is actually made, and learn how to actually take a computer they own and program with it in the same way every other developer programs with a computer (not some contrived learning language but exposure to the real tools), they'd probably be a lot less susceptible into falling into these patterns as they see them for what they are: energy draining time sinks. Empower them to think of the phone or computer as it actually should be: a tool that could run whatever you can imagine and write up on it, rather than basically a TV screen full of commercials in your pocket.
[+] [-] jawns|1 year ago|reply
Our kids can still phone and text their friends, take photos and videos, listen to music, etc. There are hundreds of supported apps, and we can always whitelist apps from the Google Play Store as needed.
But they're not on Insta/Snapchat/TikTok, they can't browse the Web, and we have reasonable oversight via parental controls.
Likewise, our 7th and 9th graders have laptops, but they don't have unfettered access to the Web.
Our hope is that by giving them sloooow exposure to the digital realm, with a lot of guard rails, they'll be less likely to get smacked in the face with something really awful that they're not equipped to handle.
I see this as a moderate position, between a total ban on technology, and practically no restrictions at all, which seems like a recipe for disaster for the majority of tweens and teens.
That said, I recognize that compared with many of their peers, it's pretty strict. That's probably the hardest part of navigating the technology landscape -- having to deal with the comparisons between what we think is sensible and what other parents allow for their kids.
[+] [-] Tijdreiziger|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] GenerativeAl|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|1 year ago|reply
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